


Melting Wings

by olivemartini



Series: Kit's Explorations of the Institutes, With the Help of Ty [6]
Category: Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Fluff, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Little bit of angst, M/M, Romance, icarus - Freeform, not really a point to this, story telling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 18:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6530599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Icarus got too close to things he wanted most in the world, and it killed him.<br/>Ty kind of knows how it felt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Melting Wings

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this because it's part of the "Exploring the Institute" series, the room in question is their study (or wherever Diana teaches their lessons).

"You don't know the story of Icarus?"

Kit looked pleasantly surprised, grinning, but Ty only scowled.  It wasn't very often that he didn't know things, but when he did, he often found it to be a very unpleasant experience.  And while he could give you a summary of the complete works of Arthur Conan Doyle, he apparently didn't know a thing about this boy who got his wings melted by the sun.   "Should I?"

"I just thought everyone knew it.  Even I knew it."  Kit didn't mention that he used to have a book on greek mythology and could tell him any number of stories about the gods, that in his mind he had always pictured Shadowhunters to be something like the heroes from the legends. 

"Tell me about it then."

Kit blinked at him, but Ty only crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.  He knew that this isn't what they were supposed to be talking about during their study time, especially when Diana was being so nice as to let Ty try his hand at tutoring Kit.  (Julian keeps threatening to split them up because they never talk about anything remotely close to it's training, but Ty knows he would never follow through with it.  The whole family is so happy he finally has a friend that they're shoving he and Kit together every chance they get.) 

"About Icarus?"

Ty nodded, leaning back to stare at the ceiling.  Kit's voice washed over him, explaining about the minotaur and an island called Crete and King Minos with his beautiful princess. "And this Dedalus, he could create any number of wonderful things for the King.  He should have been honored beyond his wildest imagination, but the King was afraid if he let him go people would find out how to defeat the minotaur.  And the King, seeing Dedalus as the treasure he was, locked him away high up in his castle, along with his son Icarus."

There was sun streaming in through the window, turning Kit's hair into a blonde halo.  Kit had always had trouble believing he was descended from an angel, but it got a little easier to accept in these moments.  He saw snatches of it in Kit sometimes.  Like now, when they're in the study with Kit sitting on top of Diana's desk, all long limbs and sparkling smiles.  He doesn't want to stop staring at him- at his eyes, at the newly added rune covering his collar bone, the way he puts all his weight on his elbows, but when Kit turns his attention on him, Ty pretends that he was staring at the chalk board.

"They couldn't stay like that, Dedalus and Icarus.  Being trapped like that was no life for his son, nor for someone as smart as Dedalus.  Dedalus knew he had to get them out, so he set out to make wings so that they could fly away from their imprisonment."  Ty felt a pang of sympathy for them, stuck up in their tower and having it called protection.  In his mind Icarus looked a little bit like Kit. 

"Time went by, and Dedalus continued his project in secret.  He would gather twigs and string, using melted wax to connect them to the frame of his wings.  Icarus did his part to keep it a secret.  It wasn't until the spring, when the fledglings were just beginning to learn how to fly, that it was time for their escape." 

"But the king found out.  He sent his guards up to arrest them, to take Icarus away from Dedalus forever- the king new that Dedalus valued his son above all else- so they were forced to make their escape earlier than they had planned.  It was dangerous, but Icarus didn't hesitate before throwing himself out of the window and out into the open air."  There was something wistful in Kit's expression, like he was remembering better times, and Ty wondered who had first told him this story.  "Now, his father had warned him before not to get to close to the ocean or the sun.  The spray from the water would loosen the feathers, and the heat from the sun would melt the wax.  But Icarus had spent too long doing what others had told him to."

"How could he resist temptation like that, when he had spent his whole entire life staring down at what he can't have?  And now just a few pulls on a lever sent him soaring down towards the ocean, close enough that he could reach his hand out and skim it over the water, feel the spray of the waves on his face.  And when a feather fell off, he just laughed, heedless of his father's shouts, and sent himself rocketing up to the sky."  Ty looked over at Kit, who had his eyes closed and was laying on his back.  He knew what it felt like, to be forced to watch something your whole life and never really get to know what it feels like, just from what you've seen of others.  He could name a few things that he would drown for.  "And there was the sun, so close.  He'd never felt sun on his skin.  Icarus could remember the times when he would lean out the window as far as he could, stretching his arm out just to catch a few rays of sun on his fingers.  But now he could feel it on his arms and back and legs, warming his skin, and he decided he wanted to see how close he could get before he could rise no higher.  So he flew, faster and farther, too far away from his father and too lost in his own happiness to notice the feathers floating down around him, one by one."

Kit knew plenty about swinging from one end of the pendulum to other, scrambling for the middle ground when all you wanted was to choose a choose a side.  There was safety in the middle, yes, but he couldn't help but feeling like the dangerous option might feel better, even if it hurts him in the end. 

It's like that with Kit sometimes.  It might be safer to stay neutral, far from the ocean and away from the sun, but it wasn't better.  Being with him was like drowning, sometimes.  The waves of emotions were swallowing him whole, but Ty found himself diving deeper, trying to find all the hidden parts of Kit that he wouldn't let anyone else see.  Sometimes the water was calm, like when they were laying beside each other in bed listening to music and pretending their hands weren't touching.  But other times it was like Ty was burning, when Kit's smile was too bright and he made Ty's skin burn where they touched.  Whenever they were around each other, racing down hallways and shouting over the sound of the other's voice, it was like his blood had turned to fire.  Kit had given him wings, yes, but Ty isn't good enough at using them yet.  There is freedom in this feeling, much in the same way Icarus must have felt when he had finally broken free of the Minos's prison, but no one ever told him how to handle it.

"And then he was falling, plummeting through the air.  He was trying to fly, to regain the  happiness but all he felt was fear, and he was trying to look for his father, hoping to find the hand that was reaching out to catch him, but all he could see was the feathers.  And Dedalus, who had tried so hard to save his son from the evil that was the king, had to watch his son fall."

When Kit finished, Ty was still waiting for the rest of the story.  He had known that this was going to have an ending that he wouldn't like, but in his experience, fairy tales and legends always turned out for the better.  "Why does everyone know that story?"

"Well, it teaches a lesson, doesn't it?"  Kit shrugged and got off the desk, done playing teacher for the day and content to go back to the role of student.

"What possible lesson could that teach?  no one's stupid enough to try to fly."  He knew, of course, that that wasn't exactly true, considering Clary's friend Simon had done exactly that the last time there was a gathering in Idris.  Isabelle doesn't like it when Ty brings that up. 

"Maybe it teaches you that you shouldn't trust it when you're happy, because there's always going to be something to ruin it."  

They were staring at each other, too close again (why are they always so close now?  Ty needs to stop.  He needs to back away.)  (But he doesn't.  He just leans in closer.)  He can't help feeling like this wasn't so much a friendly conversation as it was a warning.  "He wanted to know them so bad, the ocean and the sun, and he had no idea how dangerous they were.  So maybe,"  Kit looks angry, but Ty can't figure out what he did wrong, or why his voice sounds like he's holding something back.  He's got the feeling that this is one of those times where he's supposed to read between the lines because Kit can't say what he really means, but he's never been able to do that.  Kit should know better by now.  "Maybe it means that the things you love are rarely what they seem, so it's better to stay away before you can hurt each other."

Ty didn't think that that's what the story of Icarus was trying to teach.  He would have said so, but Kit was jerking himself away like being around Ty burned him, stalking to the other side of the room and throwing himself into his desk, and Ty had the feeling again, drowning in things he couldn't understand.

So maybe Kit was right about the moral of the story, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried really hard for some kind of deep, poetic metaphor about Icarus and his wings and Ty and his feelings for Kit, but I don't think it worked.


End file.
